Art and beauty, a winning combination – but…

Hello, and happy weekend!

In preparation for Inktober (which I highly recommend you participate in if you have the time, btw) I was looking over some of the artwork that I haven’t shared

manga chibi

over this past year. Many of you know a lot of times my artwork evolves around characters that are by design beautiful, graceful or otherwise aesthetically appealing. Most of my manga characters, for example, like this one here:

But I have just as much fun drawing creatures and scenes that are weird or scary looking, and it’s frequently more of a challenge, especially if you’re trying to imbue a character or creature with a personality that goes deeper than superficial. For example, take this leviathan I drew in ink, digitally in Procreate App a while back. At first glance, it’s a hideous monster. But look deeper and you see that it’s actually protecting the ships sailing in its mouth. This was a great one to draw, trying to incorporate hideous and bizarre features, but in the end creating a creature that was more helpful than terrifying.

Unfortunately we, as humans are drawn to beauty, and I certainly do notice more traffic with my artwork depicting beautiful or cute characters. And sometimes it’s even fun to go a little over the top with “cute,” for example this little chibi here. And there are some artists who appear to specialize in packing as much cuteness as possible into every single one of their pieces. But if we limit ourselves to either responding to, or creating works of extreme beauty or cuteness, I think we’re missing out on a vital piece of what art is, and what it can be:

Not just something to passively enjoy, but something to challenge your mind with.

So what do you guys think? Any personal comments to the theme of art and beauty?Cheers,



8 thoughts on “Art and beauty, a winning combination – but…”

  1. But how does one define beauty? That has always been the most difficult aspect for me to explain. Each of us has a different concept of what we see as beautiful. The vase that I bought, in spite of a chipped rim, that sits on my shelf. In that chip resides a whole world of stories and visions. How did it get there? Who did the vase belong to? The beauty of a whole life residing in that one little chip is more important to me than the beautiful patter painted on that vase. Creating art is the same, I think, for all of us. Taken as a whole, we see something we might interpret as beautiful. But, take the individual components and you realize there is more to the story.

    Reply
    • Yes, yes, yes! Absolutely, beauty is and should always be defined by oneself for themselves (is that correct English?!). It is subjective, there is nothing objective about beauty. Like you and the chipped vase, I can see beauty in oh so many things others would shake their head in disbelief. And – vice versa. There certainly are things I dislike or even find disgusting, however, as an artist and a human being I accept and tolerate that difference… Oh the story in that vase – now you intrigued me, hmm, maybe I can get David to write a story about it. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Debbi!

      Reply
  2. I agree with Debbi – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And yes, I’m most certainly drawn to pretty things… the colors in the sky during a spectacular sunset, the mist over the mountains at dawn, the delicate blossoms of an orchid. There is beauty in so many things around us and I have always enjoyed how you create and incorporate it into your pieces!

    Reply
    • Yes, it sure is, I agree. I, too, love all those things you describe and as such they end up in many in my images, but – I guess, I need some diversity. I have noticed that, not only in art, time and time again that I need to switch things up. I cannot do just one thing… forever, I just can’t. I have to switch to something else for a while before coming back to that one thing. But that is just me. I am glad you are enjoying my images.

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  3. While I enjoy a beautiful sunrise… I think I choose it over sunset because I like the Dark, and that’s what is coming. The last thing I absently doodled was Venom so I guess that says it all right there lol. Some say there is both beauty and horror within the Abyss — which is basically human nature having both the capacity for Light and Dark. Guess it all depends on your experiences and often mood. Generally I am drawn to the Anti-Hero since I find it more interesting in the shades of grey, than simply all “good” or all “bad” — and I like Art that depicts that too. Love the leviathan – a gentle monster 🙂

    Reply
    • Venom?! Oh dear, yeah, I guess it does say it all – LOL. And it is totally o.k. without darkness there is no light, and no light to shine with some darkness. Images are pretty boring, IMO, if there is no play with light and shadow, same as in real life or fiction.
      I visited your wix-site, but it seems you are not updating it anymore. I wanted to comment, but I was not ready to create yet another account to do so – I’m sorry! Are you still using Vero? I downloaded it a little while ago, but I have never used it. There is another full-screen photo sharing site that is new and I got invited to called Dayflash, pretty neat. Yet, another app to spend time with 🙂 I am not going to stress about things. Just like my blog and site. I will be overhauling the portfolio section of my site, probably during the dark hours of winter, but again, I am not stressing about it, because: ‘Art inspires Life; but the Life part comes first.’ Wonder where I found that quote 🙂 Thank you!

      Reply

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